With a population of more than thirty million, the Chinese living outside of the mainland, and in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan constitute an important force in the socio-economic transformation of modern China, and they have also played a significant role in the interactions between China and the nations in which they reside. Viewed from the perspective of international migration, the Chinese Overseas are one of the most dynamic immigrant groups in the world, contributing to globalization and multi-culturalism on a huge scale.

This impressive collection gathers together some of the most important, and previously disparate, publications in English on the various dimensions of the Chinese Diaspora. While it includes sections on the historical evolution of the Chinese communities overseas, the focus of the selection is on the later half of the twentieth century, with particular emphasis, against a backdrop of the accelerating pace of globalization, on the twenty-five years since the launch of the reform policy in China.